Alex Smith doesn’t know what “game manager” means

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has heard himself referred to as a “game manager,” but he’s not quite sure why.

“I have no idea what that means,” Smith said when asked on NFL Network what he thinks of the game manager label.

What it means is that Smith is good enough not to lose games for his team, but not good enough to be the primary reason his team wins games. It’s something of a backhanded compliment, but Smith says he’s not particularly worried about whether he gets criticism, praise or anything in between.

“At this point in my career I’ve been playing long enough that I don’t really care what anybody’s saying,” Smith said. “I care about the guys in this locker room, the guys in this building and going out there and winning football games. They can call me whatever they want to call me as long as we’re winning, so fine with me.”

Smith isn’t playing at anywhere near the level of the two other quarterbacks of undefeated teams, Peyton Manning in Denver and Drew Brees in New Orleans. But he says he’s playing well enough to win, and that’s all that matters.

“When the games have been on the line and we’ve had to make plays, we’ve made them,” Smith said.

If that makes Smith a game manager, he can live with that. So can the Chiefs.

He knows what it means….he just doesn’t want to be labeled that. Sure its not as cool as “playmaker”, but its a lot better than “loser”. I bet 1/2 the teams in the league wish they at least had a “Alex Smith” (aka Trent Dilfer) on their team.

Andy Reid has been looking for this kind of game manager since he’s been a head coach in the NFL. McNabb had no accuracy, Kolb took too many chances at the worst times, and Vick just makes too many dumb plays. Alex Smith is Reid’s kind of QB.

It is silly to say a QB plays well enough to not lose but not good enough to win. You either win or lose.

Game manager is more of a dis than anything else. But if you were to try to put an explanation to it, it would be a QB that doesn’t throw for many yards/td’s but also doesn’t commit many turnovers or take many sacks.

I don’t know. Smith’s numbers are good, regardless of his label, and they are winning.

There’s no shame being a game manager (which all QBs should be, I’d hate to see the ones who can’t manage a game). Troy Aikman won 3 Super Bowls and is in the HOF, it wasn’t because he was a great QB, it was because he was a good QB on a Great Team. Aikman was the ultimate game manager, so Alex if they call you a game manager remember Troy Aikman he was the best!!!

He didn’t look like a game manager when he out played drew brees two years ago in the playoffs, or when he out played Eli manning that next game only for the special teams to lose the game on two fumbled punts. It’s pretty clear that the niners kept the wrong qb, kap is struggling to complete 50% of his passes and throw for 150yards while smith is sitting pretty at 5-0. Smith is 24-5-1 in the past 3 years, only Peyton has a better win% than smith during that span.

A game manager is a QB who can only be successful when he has good players around him. He won’t make plays, carry the team on his shoulders, or make everyone around him better. A game manager’s job is to not screw up.

Eli Manning is a game manager, and somehow gets credit for being elite. Right now he’s the one player managing to lose games for his team. But when his defense say, holds the highest scoring offense in NFL history to 14 points in the SB, Eli somehow gets SB MVP.

Yes, Alex is a game manager, but if this is supposed to be the ultimate team sport, it’s nice to finally see the TEAM getting credit instead of a wild, gun slinging QB.

Game Manager means that somebody once called an average QB who was moving an offense well a game manager on national TV…and then mindless media sheep echoed the term and made it into a real term by excessive usage.

Newslash: Every QBs a game manager. And by Monday Alex Smith will be a game manager with a 5-1 record.

As a Niner fan it was great watching Alex redeem himself under Harbaugh then get put in a position to succeed in KC under Reid. He can make plays when needed, but he knows how to control the offense and dictate the pace of the game.

@ Mr.Wright

I’d rather have Smith make smart plays then play bizarro football throwing passes to the opposing defense like Eli. By the way, how are your 0-6 Giants doing?

I actually think people get game manager confused with caretaker. I wrote an article about the different types of qb’s on my website., greatestqb. It is under the rating qb’s tab. I believe a game manager is a QB that doesn’t play out of his physical abilities. Focuses on getting the ball to his playmakers and taking what the defense gives him. Game managers still make plays and throw the deep ball but won’t force the issue. A caretaker is the kind of QB that people perceive as a game manager. Caretakers are QB’s that just don’t make mistakes and allow the running game and defense to shine and lead the team to victory. Alex Smith is a game manager but on the lower end of the scale. Tom Brady is a game manager on the higher end of the scale. The difference being, Brady makes more plays and less mistakes.

KC is guaranteed two loses when they play the Broncos. Now don’t get mad Chiefs fans, there’s no shame in losing to Denver who is head and shoulders above everyone else. Get your wildcard spot and make some post season noise.

I should also say that it is debateble if Alex Smith is a high end caretaker or low end game manager. I think he is a low end game manager based on the times that I have seen him play, but he might only be a caretaker. The reason I have a different definition of game manager than most is because There has to be a way to differentiate the playing styles of guys like Favre and Marino with the Styles of Montana and Brady. Read my article on greatestqb and you’ll get a better idea of what i mean.

the 49ers beat the saints in the playoffs, and it damn sure wasn’t because of their defense. brees may have finished with more passing yards, but alex made several plays with the game on the line after his defense nearly gave it away in the final minutes. he might err on the conservative side, but he also makes less mistakes than any QB in the league. ultimately, this game is about wins and losses, and the winning percentage of teams with alex at QB speaks for itself.

There are only four quarterbacks in the league who routinely carry their entire teams: Peyton Manning, Brees, Brady and Rodgers. All other QBs are “game managers,” including Kaepernick, who hasn’t been nearly as successful on a personal level in San Francisco the past two seasons as Smith was in 2011 and into the 2012 seasons.
A strong defense can make “winners” out of most any non-elite NFL quarterback. History has proven that time and time again.
One side note: Andrew Luck is slowing creeping into the “elite” category.

Alex is a great quarterback. He made great plays for the 9ers as well in years when most of the rest of the team(and the coaching staff) was questionable. It’s great that he is excelling in KC. Good Luck, Alex!

What it means Alex is you can pick a part a defense 1-10 yards but you cant do much after that you’ve got a noodle for an arm your not very accurate 10-25 yard and god forbid if take a shot deep oh wait don’t ask you to put the game in your small hand’s besides the book on you is pretty simple MAN PRESS COVERAGE LOAD UP THE BOX WITH 8 TAKE AWAY ALL THAT UNDERNEATH STUFF AND YOUR IN TROUBLE ALEX (ny giants twice ,ravens thanks giving night 2years ago) 3 more wins is all I can ask you for as Die hard 49ers fan

I wanna throw that playoff game against the Saints a couple years ago into the face of you haters, but it simply isn’t worth the time. Why do we have to have tiers of how well QBs are playing. The three QBs mentioned are winning. Period. To compare anybody to Peyton right now is ridiculous anyway. That can os rewriting the record books. Time for you numbskulls tolearn a new ttune.

He isn’t doing anything this year he didn’t do over the past 2 previous seasons with the 49ers. 3011 Division Champs! 2012 Conference Champs. And yes, HE was the one who had them on the winning road in 2012 for what, 10 games! Then he lost his job to a concussion and a QB with show. Well, how is that working for them this year? Check out all of the numbers Smith had in 2011, and even 2012. He was one pass away from the NFL accuracy record. You call it game manager……I call it efficient. MANY teams would love to have his number….. 5-0! Ask the Giants or Jags!

He’s right. It’s a mindless label. If a bigger name was statistically comparable to Smith we would be talking about how he is gutting out wins and willing his team to victory. We are just conditioned not to be impressed with Alex Smith no matter what he accomplishes.

I seem to recall Alex Smith “game managed” the 49ers to a 36-32 win over the Saints in the 2011 playoffs, including two touchdowns in the last six minutes or so.

Man, it would be interesting to see what would have happened if the 49ers had taken Aaron Rodgers, and he’d been thrown to the wolves right away, and Smith landed in Green Bay learning from one of the best for a couple of years.

Trent Dilfer=Brad Johnson>Alex Smith
Alex Smith still needs to get to and win a Super Bowl to be referred to as a game manager. Right now hes still considered a BUST!
#1 Overall pick that has done NOTHING!

When I think of Alex Smith I think of the number one pick of 2005. Has he lived up to that? Absolutely not. As a resident of the Bay Area I remember him being benched for Shawn hill and Troy smith.

Is the guy Peyton manning? Not even close. But does the guy say all the right things, work hard, and have the desire to be a winner? Absolutely.

As a niner hater and definitely a chief hater as a raider fan, Alex has definitely earned my respect because let’s be honest… He has faced a lot of adversity, especially from within and he overcomes it with class. I wish him all the luck except for this sunday

He runs the West Coast offense the way it was meant to be run and he gets criticized for that. Of course he isn’t Manning or Brees, but this guy is playing the QB position a lot better than simply a “game manager.” It’s not just a back-handed compliment – it’s a disrespect to all that he’s invested and endured to this point in his career.

As a Browns fan, this guy is better than most of the quarterbacks we have had over the last decade. Game manager is better than game Loser. As we found out with Derek Anderson and now Brandon Weeden, big arm does not mean big brain.

The guy is 5-0! What the heck is it with people and sports “experts” who have GOT to put certain athletes, or just people in general, in a certain slot or with a certain label. Damn but this is stupid.

Game manager is term made up by the NFL and ESPN Fantasy powers that be to describe what used to be referred to as a capable winning quarterback.

The quarterback is the general of the offense, the guy that manages the whole unit but we all know that wins aren’t validated these days unless you throw for 400 with 4TD’s even if those passes come from the 2yd line. What’s important is that it was a pass that resulted in a touchdown.

Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning each have “won” two Super Bowls. And this season, those two quarterbacks’ teams are a combined 0-9. Don’t tell me that Alex Smith, or Tony Romo, or Matt Schaub, or Ryan Tennehill, or Blaine Gabbart can’t win a Super Bowl with the right TEAM…
Football is The Ultimate Team Sport, a fact that is proven on a weekly basis, only to be ignored by the quarterback obsessives who would rather believe that football is about just one position.
Laughable.

People saying Alex sucked in SF don’t know jack. SF sucked while he was there. No receivers ever. New coach and oc almost every single year. Alex was taken number 1 for a reason. With the good coaching he has had these past few seasons, he is proving his worth.

It’s funny but didn’t Alex smith have to chiefs come from behind and win this past week??? Against a very good titans defense. The dude has the highest winning percentage since 2011 but I guess that means nothing. Haters gonna hate.

As a Niner fan it was great watching Alex redeem himself under Harbaugh then get put in a position to succeed in KC under Reid. He can make plays when needed, but he knows how to control the offense and dictate the pace of the game.

@ Mr.Wright

I’d rather have Smith make smart plays then play bizarro football throwing passes to the opposing defense like Eli. By the way, how are your 0-6 Giants doing?
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Pretty much done, with two Super Bowl titles, the latest coming over the Game Manager and having destroyed him once again last year.

Trash talking the Giants doesn’t negate what I said, and it certainly doesn’t affect me, because my life isn’t wrapped up in how they play one week to the next.